Breast Cancer

The WISDOM study—Women Informed to Screen Depending On Measures of risk—was launched to test a personalized approach to screening compared to annual mammograms. Funmi Olopade, MD, FACP, is a professor of Medicine and Human Genetics and founding director of the Center for Clinical Cancer Genetics and Global Health at the University of Chicago Medical Center, and a co-investigator of WISDOM. She is an expert on understanding the etiology and genomic basis of cancer progression in diverse populations and has published extensively on both genetic and non-genetic risk factors for breast cancer. She discussed overcoming early challenges of low enrollment of Black women in the study.

The Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines were shown to be 90% effective in preventing infection in a real-world setting; Biden administration urges states to pause reopening plans amid signs of COVID-19 surge; a lawsuit seeks to end the requirement that preventive services be provided free of charge to Americans.

The FDA issues updated guidance on the emergency use authorization (EUA) process for COVID-19 screening tools; Eli Lilly releases patient-reported outcome results for Verzenio (abemaciclib) in breast cancer; COVID-19 vaccines possibly improve long-haul symptoms among patients.

The study, presented at the 2020 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, also found that time to first treatment dropped during this period of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

A targeted cue-to-action campaign of outreach, education, and incentive can improve uptake of screening mammography.

Severe mental illnesses that precede a breast cancer diagnosis may increase the risk of both all-cause and cancer-specific mortality among women with Medicaid coverage.

Alexey Aleshin, MD, senior medical director of Oncology at biotech giant Natera, said that attention on finding biomarkers for metastatic reoccurrence needs to be directed at women with a high risk of this happening.

A more aggressive tumor microenvironment may be to blame for the exaggerated inflammatory response more often seen in Black women with breast cancer compared with White women.

Changes in circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) are indicative of treatment response in early-stage breast cancer, pointed out Alexey Aleshin, MD, senior medical director of Oncology at biotech giant Natera.

An abstract from last month’s San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium identifies factors linked with longer-term controlled substance use after treatment of breast cancer with mastectomy plus breast reconstruction in women receiving opioids, benzodiazepines, and other sedative/hypnotics.

Through neoadjuvant chemotherapy we can downstage tumors, assess drug efficacy, and better segregate women by prognosis status for adjuvant treatment, explained Alexey Aleshin, MD, senior medical director of Oncology at biotech giant Natera.

We examine the incidence and impact of chemotherapy induced peripheral neuropathy on clinical and economic outcomes in women with metastatic breast cancer initiating intravenous paclitaxel/nab-paclitaxel.

Supplemental materials for article examining the incidence and impact of chemotherapy induced peripheral neuropathy on clinical and economic outcomes in women with metastatic breast cancer initiating intravenous paclitaxel/nab-paclitaxel.

This article describes treatment patterns, toxicities, and health care service utilization and costs of women with metastatic breast cancer (mBC) initiating treatment with intravenous (IV) paclitaxel or IV nab-paclitaxel.

Supplemental materials for the article describing treatment patterns, toxicities, and health care service utilization and costs of women with metastatic breast cancer (mBC) initiating treatment with intravenous (IV) paclitaxel or IV nab-paclitaxel.

The FDA has approved Margenza (margetuximab-cmkb) plus chemotherapy as a treatment option for adults with HER2-postive advanced breast cancer.

These top 5 posts from our breast cancer compendium in 2020 show that while much is known about breast cancer, much remains that can help to broaden the knowledge armamentarium.

Patient plasma samples from this study show residual circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) correlates with a poor prognosis in women with early-stage breast cancer, explained Alexey Aleshin, MD, senior medical director of Oncology at biotech giant Natera.

Compared with before the Affordable Care Act (ACA), study results show there was an increase in diagnoses of early-stage breast cancer among younger vs older minority women after the act.

Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) has a host of benefits in treating and managing patients with early-stage disease, noted Alexey Aleshin, MD, senior medical director of Oncology at biotech giant Natera.

Overall survival from early breast cancer has steadily been increasing; however, simultaneous increases in obesity and obesity-related comorbidities may have contributed to the survival disparity seen between these patient groups.

Research presented at this year’s annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America shows the possible impact of food or housing insecurity on follow-up appointments for breast cancer.

Survival after breast cancer is on the rise, thereby emphasizing the importance of discussions that focus on fertility and reproduction among younger survivors.

Among older women with and without breast and ovarian cancers, testing for the BRCA gene dropped precipitously between 2008 and 2018.

Tecentriq (atezolizumab) was approved in 2019 for PD-L1–positive triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), said Aditya Bardia, MBBS, MPH, breast medical oncologist, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School.

Patients younger than 65 years represent close to 40% of deaths from metastatic breast cancer, yet their use of end-of-life (EOL) care has not been thoroughly investigated until now.

Supplemental screening for breast cancer, beyond the standard-of-care mammography, may benefit some women who have dense breast tissue.

A recent study published in The BMJ suggests that the increased breast cancer risk varies by hormone replacement therapy (HRT) type, but that combined treatments and longer duration might lead to the highest risk.

A recent study of female breast cancer survivors shows that feelings toward body image were consistently worse among those who had a bilateral mastectomy vs breast-conserving surgery.

Having node-positive, estrogen receptor–positive breast cancer indicated a greater likelihood of overall survival following chemotherapy, despite having several comorbidities, after adjustment for confounders.